Syntax and Mental Imagery (Nov 13 and Nov 15)

Syntax: phrase structure
- The hierarchical division of the sentence into units called phrases
Breaks in syntax = change in comprehension, reading speed,
Prosody
- The pattern of pauses and pitch changes that characterize speech production
- Monotone people have trouble with prosody
Mental Imagery
Mental Imagery
- Elicit mental images seen in the mind’s eye
- Or heard in the mind’s ear
- Or smelled in the mind’s nose
Imagery and Memory
- When we are mentally visualizing something, we use:
o Long term memory
o Working memory
- Perceptual knowledge: memory for what things look or sound like
o Ppl with perceptual knowledge can’t tell you what a penguin looks like
Imagery (History)
Introspection (Galton)
- describe images and rate their vividness
- Subjects reported that they could inspect their images much as they would inspect a picture
- Scenes were represented as if viewed from a certain position and distance
Individual differences
- Some subjects described images of photographic clarity, as if they were actually seeing the
imaged scene
- Others subjects reported very sketchy images, or none at all. They were able to think about the
scenes, but they weren’t “seeing” these scenes
Individual Differences: Why?
- Do individuals really differ in the nature of their mental imagery ability?
- Perhaps they just differed in descriptiveness
Introspection - What is revealed in self-report data is not imagery, but but rather imagery as the subject elects
to describe it
- What is needed is a more objective approach - cognitive psychology
Chronometric studies of imagery (response time)
- Ask subjects to do something with their images – e.g., read information off of them (scanning),
or to manipulate them